September 23, 2016

Teacher Pay In Denver, Mead On Head Start, Mass Charters, Trumpian Ed Politics, O’Keefe On Testing Tradeoffs, CBE, 529s, Grateful Blogging

By Bellwether

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A decade ago Denver jump started the national conversation about pay for contribution or pay for performance (although it wasn’t pay for performance strictly speaking, it was important from both a practice and political standpoint). A new analysis by a local group looks at where things are and points to some directions forward. Bellwether’s Kaitlin Pennington on all this here.

Sara Mead on Head Start performance standards.

Shorter version of the Teacher Shortage version 3.0 (or 4.0 depending how you keep score): We produce more teachers overall than we need but not in the geographic and subject areas where we need them. Longer version here.

Buckle up. Earlier this year Chris Christie released a school finance proposal that basically pitted wealthy New Jersey residents against lower-income ones over the distribution of school funds. It was widely derided as cynical, irresponsible, and lousy policy. But it plays to a set of anxieties you’re hearing more about as this Stanley Kurtz NRO column illustrates. Kurtz basically argues President Obama is trying to dissolve suburban school districts under the guise of encouraging more economically diverse schools. This sort of rhetoric terrifies suburban voters, of course, and complicates various  reform efforts. All of it is of a part with tribal Trumpian politics more generally, though, so I’d keep an eye on proposals and arguments like this.

Massachusetts has a very strong charter sector, Richard Whitmire on that. But, and guys you’ll never believe this, the evidence has almost no impact on the politics there! There is a referendum on the ballot about whether to have more and it’s struggling even though Massachusetts is a place where the evidence is simply not “mixed.” Even formerly pro-choice Elizabeth Warren is Hamleting on it. Because the evidence  is so crystal clear the debate there is playing out over cost, instead, with people who usually have an insatiable appetite for public dollars suddenly saying we can’t afford these new great schools.

Bellwether’s Bonnie O’Keefe on testing tradeoffs. Bellwether pension analyst Kirsten Schmitz updates an earlier analysis of education sector benefits with new census data. Chad Aldeman talks with the Utah legislator who championed pension reform and lived to tell the tale.

Elizabeth Mann looks at the cross-pressure on Clinton on education. But surely she’d be a lot more cross-pressured and the issue might even be more dynamic if her opponent were not Donald Trump. A lot of differences understandably getting papered over in this context.

Here’s an interesting survey of state legislators and where they get their information and what they think about education.

And here’s a look at CBE implementation in three states via ExcelinED.

Not exactly breaking news but there is a lot of money in 529 plans – implications around equity, costs, and tax policy.

New blog focuses on music and education. Grateful Dead themed. What’s not to like? In that vein here’s a Bob Weir song with one of the great education lines you’ll find in music.

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